Every holiday season, in between the hustle and bustle of adding personal notes to Christmas cards and ticking off the gifts I’m buying for loved ones, I make a point to watch a recurring list of beloved holiday movies ranging from oddball favorites like While You Were Sleeping and Christmas Vacation to timeless masterpieces such as White Christmas and Home Alone. Without fail, the ritual of watching these films puts me in the spirit, but more importantly, provides breathing space during a chaotic December season.
I Rewatched ‘The Family Stone’ and Realized I Was So, So Wrong About It
This hit me like a ton of bricks
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Published Dec 15, 2025
Twentieth Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox
This year—in the wake of the passing of actress and Hollywood legend Diane Keaton—I added another Christmas classic to the queue: The Family Stone. Don’t get me wrong: I watched this film, which beyond Keaton stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Rachel McAdams and many more, in theaters when it first came out in 2005. But, at the time, it didn’t leave me feeling uplifted in the way I wanted it to, which meant it didn’t make the cut for my annual must-watch list.
A dramedy about the eccentric Stone family’s yearly Christmas gathering, a wrench gets thrown in with the addition of uptight Meredith (played by Parker), who is joining her boyfriend Everett (Mulroney) at his home in Connecticut for the first time. Right from the outset, the film’s matriarch, Sybil (played by Keaton), isn’t having it—her son deserves better!—but also, Meredith, in her quest for perfectionism keeps. getting. everything. wrong. (To the point it’s almost painful to watch.)
Twentieth Century Fox
Twenty years ago, perhaps in a post-Sex and the City world (the show ended in 2004), I was rooting too hard for SJP and also had bizarre expectations of rom-com plots, but this film mostly just bummed me out. Fast forward to my recent re-watch, and I can fully admit I was wrong.
Quite frankly, I initially missed the nuance—delivered skillfully by this brilliant ensemble cast—of the movie’s sub-plots (merging culinary traditions in the kitchen, discussing conservative vs. liberal ideals at the table, the effort to put it all aside for the sake of family togetherness) to the point that I was bowled over by them when I decided to give this film another shot. Yes, The Family Stone leans a bit hard on stereotypes and, at times, quicker-than-comfortable pacing to achieve its message, but its universality is clear: Family unity is complicated and the joyful moments (cut to SJP spilling her Morton Family Strata in the kitchen) are often the result of both laughter and tears.
But there’s one more Keaton-centered piece of wisdom that required nearly a full box of tissues for me this year: How the household matriarch is the one who, for better or worse, we lean on and, who consistently sets the tone. Spoiler alert, but we learn in the film that Sybil is quite sick, and, in fact, isn’t there the following Christmas as the Stone family gathers again. (In case it’s not clear, I’m still reeling from the loss of the real life Keaton this year.) As I watched, on the eve of my own chaotic family gatherings this year, I was reminded that, yes, there will be squabbles and keyed up talk about politics, not to mention overly charged moments, but (but!) the point is togetherness. The petty differences are all rather fleeting, no? The Family Stone serves as the perfect reminder of that.
It’s also officially a must-watch.
